How Malik Zaire gives Florida’s offense a new, dangerous dimension

Jim McElwain has overseen a tumultuous QB depth chart since taking over at Florida for the 2015 season. He started with a QB battle between Will Grier and Treon Harris, which Grier won before getting suspended. Harris took over and was playing decent but not great football and then was also suspended. Both QBs transferred out, and the Gators started over in 2016 with a battle between walk-on Luke Del Rio and Purdue grad transfer Austin Appleby. There was less drama and less effective play.

The bottom of the depth chart for 2017 includes Kyle Trask and Feleipe Franks, who both redshirted in 2016. But McElwain is hoping to continue to contend for the SEC East division title without putting either of them into action. To bridge that gap and to stave off the need for Del Rio to provide winning (and healthy) play for an entire season, the Gators joined the burgeoning market of transfer QBs and apparently landed Malik Zaire from Notre Dame, after some SEC-induced drama.

Zaire unquestionably has talent. The key question will be how well he can fit into the Gators offense after a crash course over the summer and fall — or perhaps more to the point, how well McElwain and his staff can fit the offense to Zaire.

Their approach to simplifying their system to the point where they can execute pro-style concepts at the college level is to lean heavily on the zone running game and run that play in as many fashions as can be imagined.

The Gators also have a West Coast-inspired, concept-based dropback passing game that they run from single- and double-tight end formations, which is essentially what it means to be pro-style today. This has gotten less emphasis over the last two years for the simple reason that they haven’t been good enough at QB to execute it well.

What they have been pretty good at is running zone from TE formations and making hay on the tight end/offensive tackle double team of the modern defensive end.

As changeups to avoid predictability, they could also run the zone play with the TE and RB to the same side either by pitching the ball out to the RB:

Or running the play to the “weak side” with the TE responsible for clearing out the cutback lane on the back side:

Aside from the weak zone run, which relies on the guard/center combo block from the nose to the weak side LB (usually), the Gators offense is essentially built on its effectiveness and competency executing the double team on the DE and then releasing either the TE or OT to the play-side linebacker (usually the middle LB).

Many teams lack a particularly stout DE to hold the point of attack against a good combo from a tackle and tight end. The Gators’ tackles are on the mauling end of the spectrum for the position. They started 340-pound freshman Jawaan Taylor in 2016 opposite 355-pound David Sharpe. After the season, Sharpe declared for the draft and they’ve slid 6’5, 305-pound left guard Martez Ivey out to left tackle.

The best part of their passing game over the last two years might have been their execution of a variety of slip and tunnel screens that they often disguised with run game action. But they also included some standard pro-style passing concepts and got their tight ends running in the seams.

They had a clever play design on a touchdown against Iowa in the Outback Bowl, in which they combined the smash combo (a hitch and a deep out) with their two tight ends running a post/go combo:

The Hawkeyes had their coverage strength shaded to the two-receiver side. The downfield switch of the two tight ends in which the inside TE went outside and the receiver went inside crossed up Iowa’s safety and made for an easy post route for Appleby.

For the last two years, the Gators have been scraping by on offense by putting the run game burden on their backs and OL/TEs while working hard to make it as easy as possible for the QB to hit their athletic WRs on easy reads and throws.

When Zaire was there, Notre Dame was running a “pro-style spread” offense with its offensive line in a three-point stance, frequent deployment of tight ends, and some pro-style dropback passing concepts mixed in.

Zaire was pretty inconsistent throwing the ball in their passing concepts, even on screens at times, but he has a strong arm and could push the ball down the field even while on the move. If he were coming in to run the show for a team that was hoping to keep chugging along with a passing-focused pro-style attack, this would not be a good fit. As it happens, while Florida has some promising receivers in junior Antonio Callaway and sophomore Tyrie Cleveland, their day will probably come in 2018, when McElwain’s young hand-picked QBs are ready to come into their own.

What Zaire offers is a chance for the Gators to hold water in the passing game and improve the efficacy of their run game. Two ways in which he’s well equipped to help them do this are in their screen game and on zone read keepers. At Notre Dame, the Irish occasionally mixed in some “throw the screen or hand off” run-pass options for Zaire. He could certainly handle the play-action screens that Florida mixed in last year.

He’s at his best in the QB option game and at 220 pounds is built more like an RB than a signal-caller. He runs like a back as well and is comfortable running between the tackles on power runs:

It would be child’s play for the Gators to change up some of their normal zone and power runs to feature the QB as the ball-carrier rather than an RB. They could mix them in from formations with two tight ends and three receivers to create maximal stress on opposing formations:

Zaire would be particularly lethal as an adjunct to their normal zone runs as a threat to keep the ball on the backside:

Army had this play whipped on the chalkboard, with an unblocked safety dropping down to handle Zaire if he pulled the ball. So Zaire saw the DE stepping inside and pulled the ball to take the edge, only to find that safety sitting there. However, Zaire just puts a move on him, creates a crease for himself in the space he was working in, and cuts upfield for a nice gain. That’s the kind of thing he can do for Florida.

It puts a lot of stress on him, but the Gators have depth behind him. Zaire’s extra dimension could make the Gators pretty effective on offense. And if that’s combined with another outstanding defense, the Gators are contenders — maybe front-runners — in the SEC East. Then in 2018, McElwain can run the offense he’s been building all along.